Lead with YOU!

Ok girls… listen up. I’m gonna say this LOUDLY and CLEARLY… are you ready?

We all have weird and quirky things that are part of who we are. There will come a time in your life when you will embrace these crazy, quirky aspects of your personality... unfortunately, we often go through phases where we are sooooo embarrassed by these quirky things that make us different than others. We try and hide them… suppress them… push them waaayyy, waayyy, down so no one can see them.

I had a few things that I tried to hide when I was younger… one thing was my hair color. My close circle of friends had long and lush blond, brown, or black locks. Oh, but not me. My hair was red… it made me different from my friends… and it made me feel awkward. I wanted so badly to be just like everyone else… to "fit in." The thing I didn't realize at the time was… I DID fit in. I fit in with my friends! They liked me for who I was, not for my hair color… or the awkward glasses that I had to wear because I couldn't see very well… or for my slightly crooked teeth.

Our culture pushes us to “fit in”… to try and emulate Instagram influencers… to try and look like photo-shopped, airbrushed robots. Let me ask you this… imagine that you are looking at a ginormous field of red poppies. And right in the middle, a solitary and lovely yellow sunflower is standing tall. If you had to pick one flower from this bunch, wouldn't you choose the lovely yellow sunflower? I SOOOOOO would! So, be the charming, tall, and confident yellow sunflower.  

It just takes such a long time to get comfortable with who you are… but, I PROMISE, there will come a day when you embrace and love the quirky things that make you who you are... those are the things that make you COOL and INTERESTING. I want you to LEAD with those things. Sure, there will also be so many things about you and your personality that are similar to others… things that you have in common with friends. Carry those with you as well.  But, LEAD with cool and quirky things that make you different than everyone else. Because no one else in this vast, big, magical world can offer what YOU can offer… because there's no one else out there exactly like you. That's excellent, right?

So, here’s the thing I want to you hear loudly and clearly… lead with YOU! Always…

Keep walking towards your magic… and be a girl like YOU...